How to Remove Food Stains From the Carpet with Simple Household Items
Food stains on your carpet are one of the most common yet difficult to remove. In this post, we will show you how to get this done with simple household items, even if you have zero experience cleaning rugs and carpets.
You can easily do this and move on to other chores. In the end, your carpet will be as good as new.
An important point to note, however, is this: Test this on an inconspicuous area of your carpet, to avoid any discoloration or bleaching during stain removal.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get right into it!
How to Remove Food Stains From the Carpet
Chewing Gum
Chewing gum is known to adhere to any surface outside of the mouth. It adapts exactly to each surface structure and therefore adheres to it.
It’s not a big deal on smooth surfaces. However, if it adheres to textiles, its removal is a little more difficult.
The best way to clean your carpet is to weaken the sticking force of the gum by cooling it strongly. The easiest way to do this is to use an ice cube and rub the chewing gum for a few seconds. The chewing gum hardens and can be removed completely from the mat.
An alternative to ice cube is to apply a cold medical spray, which you can buy at any drugstore.
Coffee
If coffee falls on the carpet, you need to react quickly. The fresher the coffee stain, the easier it is to clean the carpet.
To do this, a mixture of carbonated water and washing up liquid, with which you can dab the stain, is particularly effective.
The situation is different with coffee stains that have already dried. The easiest way to remove them is to use gall soap. It should also be carefully dabbed onto the stain and then rinsed off with a little water after a short reaction time.
The baking powder is also suitable to remove coffee stains from carpet. To do this, spread it over the stain with a toothbrush and leave it on for about 30 minutes. Then you can vacuum the rest of it with the vacuum cleaner and then treat the area with a clean, damp cloth.
Pure alcohol, which you can buy at any drugstore, is also effective. Put some on a clean cloth and use it to dab the carpet until the coffee is completely absorbed, and the stain is gone.
Red Wine
With household remedies like salt or baking powder, it is possible to remove red wine stains from carpets.
Carefully spread the product of your choice on the stain with a toothbrush and let it act. Then treat the stain with a little water and vacuum up the rest of the baking powder.
You can also clean your carpet using a method similar to household salt, as its natural substance absorbs the liquid and thus removes the red color from the fibers. Sprinkle plenty of salt on the stain and leave to act until the salt is moist.
Repeat this process and let the salt work for several hours or better overnight. Then vacuum the rest or rub the salt.
Finally, treat the stain with a soapy solution.
Another remedy for removing a red wine stain is to use window cleaner. You simply need to spray on the stain and dab the treated area with a kitchen towel after a short reaction time.
However, it is much less aggressive to try with sparkling mineral water first. This can be poured entirely without hesitation on the stain. Carbon dioxide dissolves dyes and tannins in fibers. Dab the water off with a clean cloth. Repeat this process until the stain is gone.
Chocolate
The chocolate stains dried are generally very tenacious and difficult to remove because of the high fat content of the chocolate materials. You should therefore first try to scrape the top layer of chocolate with the blade of a kitchen knife.
Then you can dab the rest with a sponge soaked in cold water. In order to be able to effectively remove grease residue, you must immediately treat the soiled area with hot water and a little gall soap.
Fresh chocolate stains must first be fixed. To speed up this process, you can cool the stain using an ice cube. Then you have to try with a kitchen knife to carefully scrape the chocolate to remove it from the fibers.
Depending on the color and type of carpet, the already proven baking powder can also help with chocolate stains. The procedure is the same as for removing coffee or red wine stains. Another option is to treat the chocolate stain with the essence of vinegar. But here too, you have to be careful, because the vinegar essence can have a bleaching effect.
To be sure, we recommend the use of sparkling water. Simply pour over the stain, then dab with a kitchen towel, and the stain will disappear.
Tomato sauce or ketchup
The stains of tomato sauce or ketchup are considered particularly difficult to remove. So you need to treat tomato stains immediately. Clean your carpet by first, roughly removing the rest with a kitchen towel. Then soak the rug in cold water for at least 20 minutes. Then wash off the stain with lukewarm water and soap or vinegar.
As always, don’t rub the stain, but always pat gently! Wash the carpet again with clean water. If the stains remain, they can be removed with a little alcohol. But beware, alcohol also has a whitening effect.
Grease
Do you have a runner rug in your kitchen or dining room? So you’ve probably had grease spots before. Fresh grease stains can be treated very effectively with conventional flour. Just put it on the area to be treated and let it act. After a few minutes, you can absorb it and the stain should be gone.
If you wish, you can also use the dry shampoo available in pharmacies. Just spray on the stain, leave it on, and brush again. To dissolve dried grease stains, it is better to use salt water. Pour tap water over the stain. Then prepare a saline solution. With this, dab the stain until it is no longer visible on the carpet.
Precautions
- Do not allow the stain to penetrate deeper into the fabric. Therefore, in any case, start by dabbing instead of rubbing!
- Always work from the outside to the inside, from the edge of the stain towards the middle.
In Summary:
Chewing gum
- Ice Cube
Coffee
- Sparkling water and dish
- Gall soap
- Baking powder
- Pure alcohol
Red wine
- Baking powder
- Cintron essence and salt
- Window cleaner
- Sparkling water
Chocolate
- Ice cube
- Cold water
- Hot water & gall soap
- Baking powder
- Vinegar essence
- Sparkling water
Tomato sauce
- Cold water
- Lukewarm water and soap or vinegar
Fat
- Flour
- Dry shampoo
- Salt water